


Queen of his heart

by Archesa



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Happy Ending, Inspired By Tumblr, No worries, Not the season 4 episode tho, Post 'beast island', Sad with a Happy Ending, Set post 'betrayal', She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018) Season 4 Spoilers, i could have made this humourous but it seems I like to make characters suffer, i'm still me, so happy ending, what if...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:33:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24822400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Archesa/pseuds/Archesa
Summary: What if, in that scene in season 4 where Hordak finds Catra on his throne, he instead found Entrapta? Angst ensues!
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 185





	Queen of his heart

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this tumblr post :  
> https://archesa.tumblr.com/post/621434807102144512/im-on-it  
> Find me @archesa ;)

He was exhausted, more so than usual, and longed only to remove his armour and lock himself in his sanctum, still littered with the blatant evidence of his failure, the pieces and scraps of the portal that almost tore reality apart...

The walk through his throne-room, and the climb up the imposing flight of stairs drew even more of his waning forces.

It must have been some trick of his burned-out nervous system that conjured the smell that filled his lungs through sharp ragged breaths. A faint trace of grease, the acrid scent of flint come from the mixture of different burnt metals and something sweet that was so distinctively _hers_. Entrapta. The betrayer. The one who had let the princesses in his sanctum. The one who had abandoned him. And then again, why wouldn't she... How could he have been so blind, such an utter fool as to believe she would actually _care_ for him... that she would stay... that she would return...

A gasp shattered the silence of the sanctum, as a dash of lavender coloured his vision.

She was there. Sat on the arm of his throne, eyes downcast, hands and hair twirling on themselves in a nervous gesture.

She looked up at the sound of footsteps, a blindingly radiant smile enlightening her face.

“Hi, Hordak! I was waiting for you to get back!”

Frozen in utter disbelief, he felt his chest tighten painfully around his hearts, his breathing deepen to an agonizing rhythm as a storm of emotions washed over him. Confusion, relief, anger, longing... One prevailed. Rage.

He crossed the length of the dais to his throne in a few long strides, the pain and exertion forgotten in his simmering fury.

“How dare you come back to me after everything you've done?”, he seethed, each word cutting deeper than the last through the tattered edges of his own determination. “You think I'd have sunken so low as to forgive your betrayal.”

“I didn't – Aaah!”

She winced when he grabbed her arm.

He immediately let go and took a step back. Rage shifted in something more destructive, more familiar. Loathing. He reviewed his gesture, the swiftness of his movement, the amount of strength in his grip – meant to reassure him that her vivid image was not the result of a chemical cascade from the depths of his tired brain. And he had hurt her.

She shifted uncomfortably, holding her arm to her chest as her hair twirled nervously, reflexively trying to conceal her face, to lower a welding-mask she no longer wore.

Only then he noticed. The tears in her coveralls, the dirt, twigs and oil in her hair, the bruises on the little exposed skin she showed, the deep mark on her right cheek – one that would inevitably scar.

“What happened to you?”, he breathed.

“I- I meant to warn you about the portal. I ran simulations after Adora told me opening it would rip the fabric of space and time apart. She was right. And I wanted to warn you, but... Catra...”

His anger returned. Of course she had lied! What made more sense? That Entrapta had feigned interest, lied through gritted teeth for the hundreds of days they had spent working together, put effort and care in helping him overcome his affliction only to betray him at a random – albeit misplaced – fit of temper. Or that Catra, who had already lied to his face, had blatantly taken advantage of his moment of weakness to sow the seeds of doubt and had torn them apart.

He kept his rage in check for the time being... The moment of reckoning would come. But for now, he had to care for Entrapta, to learn exactly how deep Catra's betrayal went.

“What did she do to you?”

“She stopped me from telling you. I thought she was my friend but-... She electrocuted me. And when I awoke, I was on an island.”

His blood turned to ice in his veins.

“At first, I thought I should stay put, that eventually someone would realise it was a mistake, that someone would come for me.”

The corners of her mouth twitched in a sad smile.

“But that did not turn out as I had expected the first time so... after a while I told myself I had to come back on my own. And since Adora told me they had not intentionally left me behind, I figured that maybe it was the same for you... That maybe, you were not mad at me because the portal malfunctioned, that maybe you didn't know where I was. And if that was the case I needed to clarify the situation with you, before I returned to Dryl.”

Of the thousand thing he wanted to tell her – that he had not abandoned her, not intentionally at least, that the portal malfunctioning was not her fault, that had he known where she was, he'd have come in person to get her out of Beast Island – he only managed to give voice to the last.

“Dryl? Why would you return to Dryl?”

She looked up to him, a slither of hope in her eyes.

“I assumed that, since the portal cannot be stabilized, you would no longer need me around.”

“What do you mean, 'cannot be stabilized' ?”

“Well, you've seen what it did the first time! It was not a mere malfunction, our null hypothesis was fundamentally flawed. Whoever stranded Etheria from the rest of the universe made sure we could never return.”

Mixed feelings again. His signal had managed to pass through, to the wider universe, where it would inevitably have reached Prime. But if Entrapta's conclusions were correct, even if the emperor of the known universe did pin-point his location, he would not be able to reach Etheria.

A strand of hair reached to him, softly weighting upon his shoulder.

“I'm sorry you're stuck here. I know how much you wanted to return...”

How she found in herself to keep comforting him after everything she'd been through was beyond him.

He once again closed the distance between them, standing before her for the briefest moment before he sank to his knees, and laid his head on hers.

She tensed for a moment, taken aback, then hesitantly draped her gloved arms around his back.

They stayed like that for a while, in quiet intimacy, unspoken emotions passing between them in a rush of heartbeats and sharpened breaths.

Finally, Hordak's voice broke the silence.

“I never cared for this wretched world, that much is true...”

He looked up to her, the burning sensation building in his eyes finally receding, as relief washed anew.

“But this world has _you_.”


End file.
